Nancy Cohen is a New Jersey artist who works in two closely related practices: fused glass sculpture and handmade paper drawings. Her glass pieces incorporate salvaged river debris alongside molten glass, while her paper drawings use pigmented pulp to create flowing, organic lines. Both paper and glass, give physical form to a central theme of Cohen's work: the relationship between fragility and solidity.
This duality is inseparable from her environmental concerns. Cohen's home and studio in New Jersey sit amid the waterways she has studied for decades.. The river debris embedded in her glass carries the history of those waters, and the rippling surface of her handmade paper evokes the movement of water itself.
As Cohen says, "Handmade paper and glass — translucent, delicate, and yet unexpectedly tough and durable — expose the internal and yet protect it. They are skin and structure, portal and shield. For decades, these materials have played a central and natural role in work exploring dualities of vulnerability and strength."
Her awards include six fellowships from the NJ State Council on the Arts, two from the Jersey City Arts and Culture Trust Fund, two from the Brodsky Center, The Murray Reich Distinguished Artist Award, and a Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant. Other residencies include Yaddo, Millay Arts, Dieu Donne, Wheaton Arts, Pyramid Atlantic, Women’s Studio Workshop and The Tides Institute. Cohen’s work is in the permanent collections of the New Jersey State Museum, Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Museum, Montclair Art Museum, and Yale University Art Museum, among others. She lives and works in New Jersey.